How YOU can make a difference!
How you can help:
Donate to support the Maasai Education and Research Center (MERC) and the creation of the Maasai Automotive Education Center (MAEC)!
DONATE HERE
Donate to support the Maasai Education and Research Center (MERC) and the creation of the Maasai Automotive Education Center (MAEC)!
DONATE HERE
- Spread awareness by sharing or following our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles to friends and family.
- Instagram: @maasaiautomotive
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maasaiautomotive/
- Learn more about the Maasai culture and about the problems we are trying to help them overcome. Contact us with ideas or suggestions!
The Problem:
The Maasai is a semi-nomadic nation of people inhabiting Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania. The area they inhabit is known to be one of the best game drive locations within all of Africa. Due to this, The Maasai’s main source of income comes from leading game drive tours. Due to the Maasai’s reliance on off-road tourism, they often run into many automotive maintenance problems.
The Maasai people do not have the necessary tools or training to fix these automotive problems and thus they must rely on external mechanics and repair shops that are sometimes up to 10 hours away. These mechanics then charge up to six times times the normal amount for repairs. Not only do they over charge, but they rig the tour vehicles for failure and prompt them to buy parts they may not need and that are absorbently priced. This dependence on external mechanics cost the Maasai tour guides up to half of their total earnings, crushing their financial independence and starving the people of desperately needed income. These effects not only limit the Maasai economy but also deprive the men, women, and children that live on this wage.
Our Solution:
Our team, based out of Arizona State University, plans to bring back the Maasai people’s economic independence and prosperity by doing the following:
- Creating the Maasai automotive center, consisting of an engineering classroom, an automotive workshop facility and a maker-space with various tools, workbenches, and project storage.
- Implementing an adaptive curriculum based around the Toyota Land Cruiser that covers common repairs and maintenance.
- Accumulating a spare parts inventory where replacement parts can be kept on-hand and purchased for necessary repairs.
To successfully implement this solution our team first must accumulate data on what tools and items are necessary for the Maasai tour guides to have on hand. This will be done by utilizing the mobile repair kit developed by ASU students. This kit will be given to Maasai tour guides and provides them with a variety of tools and repair items necessary for on the road repairs. This allows these guides to test and report on which items they did and did not need and will give us a basis for what the automotive center will need in the future.
This is the first step in implementing our solution, and you can help us. Each repair kit costs $300.00, and our goal is to have 7 kits prepared by the end of March. A donation of any size will help contribute towards implementing the first Maasai automotive center and relieving the people of economic dependence and despair.